Albuquerque Wasted $116,000 on COVID-19 Book Nobody Bought
The City of Albuquerque spent more than $116,000 of taxpayer money to publish a book that documents how elected officials responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The final product turned out a total dud.
Leftist reporter Joline Gutierrez Krueger wrote the book, titled City at the Crossroads: The Pandemic, Protests, and Public Service in Albuquerque.
In a new report, City of Albuquerque Inspector General Melissa Santistevan called City at the Crossroads a waste of money.
According to the Amazon.com description, City at the Crossroads examines how COVID-19 impacted Albuquerque. The book then bizarrely pivots to “the murder of George Floyd” in Minneapolis.
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Minneapolis and Albuquerque are more than 1,200 miles apart.
Albuquerque City Council member Dan Lewis requested that Santistevan, in her role as auditor, inspect Krueger’s book.
Lewis also asked whether the book was worth so much taxpayer money.
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In her report, Santistevan noted that members of Mayor Tim Keller’s administration handpicked political allies to write the book’s introduction and forward sections. The final parts included poetry from Albuquerque residents.
“The idea was to chronicle this event in case another pandemic happens again,” according to Santistevan’s report.
“There were several discussions on how to document the year, and ultimately it was decided to look for a writer who could narrate and research what was going on in the community and what was happening in city government and put the information into a book format.”
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The Albuquerque-based KOAT reported that city officials paid Krueger more than $44,000 to write City at the Crossroads.
Krueger said on her LinkedIn that she wrote columns for the Albuquerque Journal for 15 years. She now writes free-lance.
On Twitter, Krueger routinely blasts former President Donald Trump, Moms for Liberty, and Republicans in general. She behaves more like a political activist than an objective journalist.
KOAT reported that Krueger’s book sold fewer than 100 copies.
Special thanks to Warhammer’s Wife for proofreading this story before publication. Follow Warhammer on Twitter @Real_Warhammer
